THE SKUNK AS A TOMATO-WORM DESTROYER -St. Joseph, Mich., Oct. 14, 1869.-I want to speak a word for the much abused animal we all so much dislike to come in contact with, known sometimes as the "Essence-pedlar," but more commonly as the Skunk. My tomato vines (some four hundred) and potato vines, with the exception of the "Peach Blows," were covered this year with the Tomato Worms. The tomatoes, although repeatedly cleared of them, were finally completely stripped of foliage; but yet the worms held on. All at once the worms began to disappear, and soon there was not one to be seen. At the same time, there were found numerous holes among the plants, and fresh ones every day, about 6 inches deep, dug by some animal. I had often noticed in the evening the odor of a skunk, and the tracks of that animal were distinctly seen. Now I am satisfied that the skunk has proved himself a valuable friend, for by his well known habit of feeding on worms, grubs, etc., he has completely rid my grounds of this nuisance, even burrowing in the earth for the worms that had gone into winter quarters. We say most emphatically, don't kill the skunks. L. P. HASKEll.

BAD BUGS-Charleston, Coles county, Ill., June 8, 1869.-The prospect for a large crop of apples is growing beautifully less every day. Trees that were loaded with young fruit two weeks ago, are now in many instances almost stripped by the Codling Moth. The Cut Worm [White Grub?-EDS.] is doing much mischief in our county; especially is this the case in fields that have recently been meadows. One man had eighty acres of corn cut smooth by this insect last week; in other cases the amount destroyed ranges from five acres up to forty. The Army Worm (genuine) and the Chinch Bug walk through our meadows and our fields of corn and of spring wheat, as if they owned the soil, making clean work as they go..

M. C. MCLAIN.

WHITE GRUB FUNGUS- Vineland, N. J., Aug. 11, 1869.-In the spring of 1865, when I was botanizing in Benton county, Iowa, I saw great numbers of the common White Grub with the curious fungus growing out of their mouths. There were literally thousands of them scattered over quite a tract; yet in no instance did I ever see one of these "sprouts" with the least shade of green color; they were all of them white at the base, gradually deepening into a purple color at the tip.

MRS. MARY TREAT.

ARMY WORMS Benton, Franklin county, Ill., June 10, 1869.-The Army Worms are destroying about all the pastures in this vicinity, but confine themselves chiefly to redtop grass; they have also destroyed considerable corn. I have myself twenty acres of redtop; and unless they stop working upon it inside of two weeks, it will be entirely ruined for hay. There are a few stalks of timothy and clover among my redtop; but the worms have eaten all the redtop from around them, and left the timothy and clover scarcely touched. The worms confine themselves to the lowest part of my pasture, where the grass is the largest. They work upon the grass along the edge of the field of winter wheat, but the wheat itself they have not up to this time touched. A. A. HYATT.

THE PLUM CURCULIO-Grayson, Ky., Sept. 27, 1869.-Touching the Plum Curculio, I may state that, having occasion to build a hen-house where a plum tree stood, instead of removing the tree I enclosed the trunk and trimmed off the branches to the roof. Result: I have for two years past gathered perfect fruit from the tree, and have not found one specimen stung by any insect. A temporary hen-coop constructed under another plum tree the past season partially succeeded, whilst the trees not so protected lost all their fruit by the curculio.

JOHN C. BAYLER.

ASPARAGUS BEETLES-Old Westbury, L. I, N. Y., June 6th, 1869.-I learn from the asparagus-growers of Oyster Bay, that the Asparagus Beetle-owing to their carelessness in not cutting everything down and making clean work last year-is becoming more plentiful again. But I believe they can keep the insect under control, if they are not too careless. The culture of asparagus is largely increasing in the vicinity of New York, and large quantities are again reshipped to Boston and neighboring cities. ISAAC HICKS.

SCARCITY OF THE CORN-WORM AND BOLLWORM-Pickens' Station, Miss., Aug. 1, 1869.The Corn-worm-the species which eats the silk and the end of the ear, and which you say is the same as the Boll-worm-is quite scarce this year, and singularly enough the Cotton Boll-worm is also very scarce. A very warm dry spell, about the time corn silked out last year, is supposed to have killed them. Last year the ravages of the Boll-worm were fearful in this section. This year we hope for a little rest, and exemption from the scourge.

B. H. BRODNOX.

when crawling, which operation is effected by a series of sudden jerks. The third segment is the largest, the second but half its size and the first still smaller, and when at rest the two last mentioned segments are partly withdrawn into the third as shown in our figure. The young larva is green, with a long slender reddish horn rising from the eleventh segment and curving over the back, and though we have found full grown specimens that were equally as green as the younger ones, they more generally assume a pale straw or reddish-brown color, and the long recurved horn is invariably replaced by a highly polished lenticular tubercle. The descriptions extant of this worm are quite brief and incomplete. The specimen from which our drawing was made, was of a pale straw color which deepened at the sides and finally merged into a rich vandyke-brown. A line of a feuillemorte brown, deep and distinct on the anterior part, but indistinct and almost effaced on the posterior part of each segment, ran along the back, and another line of the same color continuous, and with its upper edge fading gradually, extended along each side. The six scolloped spots were cream-colored; the head, thoracic segments and breathing-holes inclined to flesh-color, and the prolegs and caudal plate were deep brown. The worm is covered more

or less with minute spots which are dark on the back but light and annulated at the sides, while there are from six to eight transverse wrinkles on all but the thoracic and caudal segments.

The color of the worm, when about to transform, is often of a most beautiful pink or crimson. The chrysalis (Fig. 34 b) is formed within a smooth cavity under ground. It is of a dark shiny mahogany-brown color, shagreened or roughened, especially at the anterior edge of the segments on the back. Unlike the Hog-caterpillar of the Vine, described in our last, this insect is everywhere singlebrooded, the chrysalis remaining in the ground through the fall, winter and spring months, and producing the moth towards the latter part of June. We rather incline to believe however that

there may be exceptions to the rule in southerly latitudes, and that in such latitudes it may sometimes be double-brooded; for we have known the moth to issue near St. Louis during the first days of August, and have this very year found two worms in the same locality as late as the 25th of October, neither of which was quite full grown, though the leaves on the vines upon which they were found had almost all fallen. In Rock Island county, in North Illinois, out of three larvæ that we had in our breedingcages in 1868, every one of them developed into the moth state in the first few weeks of the August of the same year; and we heard several years ago of one larva developing the same season in the adjoining county of Henry. Apparently such premature development of Sphinx moths is a well-known occurrence among the different European species. For Chas. Darwin remarks that "a number of moths, especially Sphinx moths, when hatched in the autumn out of their proper season, are completely barren; though the fact of their barrenness is still involved in some obscurity."*

The moth (Fig. 35 c) is of a brown-gray color variegated with light brown, and with the dark spots, shown in our figure, deep brown. The hind wings are pink with a dark shade across the middle, still darker spots below this shade, and a broad gray border behind. We once had an excellent opportunity of observing how it bursts open the chrysalis shell, for while we were examining a chrysalis, the moth emerged. By a few sudden jerks of the head, but more especially by friction with the knees of the middle pair of legs, it severed and ruptured the thin chrysalis shell, and the very moment the anus touched the ruptured end, the creamy fluid usually voided by newly-hatched moths was discharged.

We have never found any parasite attacking this species, but its solitary habit and large size make it a conspicuous object, and it is easily controlled by hand, whenever it becomes unduly numerous upon the grape-vine.

See Variation of Animals and Plants, etc., II, pp. 157-8, English Edition, and the references there given in the foot

note.

SWARMS OF LADYBIRDS.

We learn from English exchanges, that countless millions of Ladybirds have appeared in Kent and Sussex, and have even extended their flight to London. Streets, roads, buildings and dresses of persons moving in the open air were covered with them. At Ramsgate, Broadstairs, and surrounding country, they were so thick that the ground seemed covered with red sand; and children, for amusement, gathered them in paper bags in large quantities, and in one place men were found shoveling them through the gratings into the sewer. These insects appeared to be moving westward, and they presented a front of several miles. It is currently believed that these immense swarms came from the Continent across the channel; but Mr. T. Southwell, of Norwich, in the October number of Hardwicke's Science Gossip, argues (and we think rightly) that they could not possibly have crossed the channel. It appears that both the beetles and their larvæ had been unusually numerous in England in gardens, and more especially in hop-yards, where they saved the crop which was once threatened by the Hop-louse, and it is easy to understand that their onward movement in search of food, would cause them to congregate on the sea shore. Strangely enough, we cannot glean from any of the accounts that we have seen, what particular species it is that has thus swarmed, or whether more than one species is concerned.

THE SQUASH BUG DOES NOT TOUCH THE WHITE BUSH SCOLLOP.

Our friend, Major E. S. Foster of Bushberg, Mo., planted, last spring, side by side, two long rows of squash vines, the one row consisting entirely of the "Hubbard," and the other of the "White Bush Scollop" variety. We were much surprised to find, that while the common Squash Bug (Coreus tristis, DeGeer) had almost entirely ruined the plants of the former variety, and had furnished almost every leaf with a batch of eggs, it had left untouched those of the latter sort. Should further experience prove that this immunity is general, the knowledge of the fact will be invaluable to the squash-grower, for the Squash Bug is one of his very worst enemies.

We will state right here, for the benefit of those who are troubled with this pest, that one of the most effectual methods of destroying it, is to lay down pieces of board along the rows. During the night time the bugs congregate underneath the boards, and in the early morning they may be killed by wholesale.

SCIENTIFIC PHRASEOLOGY.

[Translated from Le Naturaliste Canadien, No. 4.1 Every day we hear formal complaints made against the nomenclature adopted in science; and yet this nomenclature is a necessity. Doubtless, we ought not to misuse it, and make a silly display of words which will be understood by but very few persons, especially if we are writing to popularize science. For above all things, a writer ought to express himself so as to be understood. Every time, therefore, that we are treating of a plant or an animal that has a popular name, we must not hesitate to make use of that name, because we may be sure that it will be understood more surely and more readily than any other. But we wish that the scientific name likewise should be always mentioned along with the popular name, in order to avoid mistakes. For it will sometimes happen that such and such a plant, or such and such an animal, bears such and such a popular name in one place, and such and such another popular name in another place. Thus, in the district of Trois-Rivieres, humble-bees (bombus) are “humble-bees," and horse-flies, (tabanus) are "horse-flies." The people there know perfectly well how to distinguish the one from the other. They know that the humble-bee has got four wings and a sting in its tail, and that the horse-fly has only got two wings, and has no sting in its tail. On the other hand, in the district of Quebec, people do not know how to distinguish between these two genera. No matter whether the insects have but two wings, or whether they have as many as four wings, they are called indiscriminately "horse-flies." We may judge then if it is easy to understand folks when they talk of the manners and habits of one animal, and use the name that properly belongs to another animal. For instance, if a Quebec man proceeds to say at Trois-Rivieres that "he has found a nest of horse-flies" in the ground, and that there was a good deal of honey in it, the Trois-Riveres folks will laugh in his face, because there they know very well that horse-flies do not make any nests, and that they never produce any honey. Just such a mistake as this was actually made not long ago by the Gazette des Campagnes. Speaking of the Flea-beetles (Haltica) that infest cabbages, turnips, etc., and intending to say that, when spent ashes were thrown upon them, they might be seen jumping in all directions, instead of calling them "Flea-beetles," which would have been correct and would have been understood by the whole world, it called them "Plant-lice" (aphis)! What an absurd blunder! the idea of

plant-lice jumping! Why, there is still more difference between a flea-beetle and a plant-louse than there is between a dog and a turkey. Now, if in speaking of this bird, whatever name we chose to give it, we were to say that, as it walked about, it lifted up one leg and wetted every post that it came across, judge what astonishment we should produce! Both in the district of Quebec and in that of Trois-Rivieres, they commonly call the little yellow beetles with black stripes (Diabrotica vittata) which infest the leaves of melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc., by the name of "plant-lice," and the flea-beetles by the name of "earth-fleas." In fact, in Canada we are almost completely bare of recognized popular names for animals, especially so far as regards insects, of which there are scarcely a score that have special names appropriated to them. Our compatriots who speak the English language are scarcely better off in this respect than we are. Amongst them, almost all insects are called either "flies" or "bugs; it is "the cucumber-BUG," "the potato-BUG," "the roseBUG," etc., and a man that hunts after all kinds of insects is nothing but a BUG-hunter."

66

HOGS vs. CURCULIO.

[From the Rural New Yorker, Aug. 28, 1869.]

In the Rural of July 31, L. L. Fairchild calls for experience and facts under the above heading.

Here is my experience, which satisfies me that hogs are the best plum cultivators:-I bought a farm that had some twenty very fine plum trees on it. In spring they would bloom full, and when the fruit was about half grown all would fall off, which was really vexing. I threatened to grub them up as cumberers of the ground; but this was protested against, saying may be they will ripen next year.

I wanted a lot to feed hogs in, and the plum orchard was right where I wanted them, but I was persuaded to fence in only a part of the trees, which was done in early spring. All the trees blossomed full, and when the fruit was about half grown the trees out of the hog lot played their old tricks; all the fruit fell off; but the trees in the hog lot did not shed their fruit, though the hogs had almost dug them up by the roots. The trees grew well and the fruit also, and every tree had to be propped up. The fruit ripened, and was excellent.

The next season the fence was changed, and run around all the rest of the trees in the orchard, and all included in the hog lot without a protest. All produced ripe fruit for years.

This was only accidental; but it is experience, and to me is proof enough. I advise all, in setting plum trees, to set them where they can have their hogs run. Others have tried the experiment, and can testify to the same results. Hogs will save plums. G. G. UNION CITY, Ind., 1869.

The popular reader, who generally objects to the long crack-jaw scientific names of insects, will find that we always when possible give the plain English names of such insects as we have occasion to refer to, adding in a parenthesis (printed in italics) the Latin or scientific names. To the entomologist, these last names are an absolute necessity, because it is only through the use of them that he is enabled to know, with the requisite scientific precision, what particular species we are talking about. To the general reader, they need not be any stumbling-block; for he will always find that in our columns he can skip over the parenthesis that contains them, without interfering in any wise with the full and complete meaning of the sentence. By adopting this plan we aim to suit as far as possible both parties; namely, the scientific man who is never satisfied unless he knows the scientific appellation of the insect that we are treating of, and the popular student, who is generally annoyed and disgusted by stumbling upon Latin phraseology which he neither understands nor cares about.

BEDBUGS.

In New York, the other evening, there was a learned dissertation on the subject: "Bedbugs, and their remarkable tenacity of life." One asserted of his own knowledge that they could be boiled and come to life. Some had soaked them for hours in turpentine without any fatal consequences. Old Hanks, who had been listening as an outsider, here gave in his experience in corroboration of the facts. Says he: "Some years ago I took a bedbug to an iron foundry, and dropping it into a ladle where the melted iron was, had it run into a skillet. Well, my old woman used that skillet pretty constant for the last six years, and here the other day she broke it all to smash; and what do you think, gentlemen, that 'ere insect just walked out of his hole, where he'd been layin' like a frog in a rock, and made tracks for his old roost up stairs. But," added he, by way of parenthesis, "by George, gentlemen, he looked mighty pale."New York Republic.

INSECT DESTROYING ASSOCIATION. Associations of this kind are being started in New Jersey, with a view to the more successful cultivation of apples, pears, peaches, etc. The object is to adopt a plan which will work to clear orchards of injurious insects of every kind. It is held that if every fruit-grower will adopt some established means to rid his orchards of these insects, and sedulously and honestly attend to it, the culture of fruit will be made a certainty and the profitableness of it will satisfy the reasonable demands of every one. It is farther held that all farmers and cultivators of fruit will be forced to come into the measure on the principle of self-interest: that is, they must either destroy the insects or fail of success.-Germantown Telegraph.

ON OUR TABLE.

Besides our regular exchanges we find on our table the following publications, which we are obliged to notice in the most curt manner, on account of our limited space:

RECORD OF AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY FOR THE YEAR 1868, Edited by A. S. Packard, Jr., M. D., Salem, Mass.-Naturalists' Book Agency.—A work that has been greatly needed by American Entomologists. This initiatory number is gotten up in good style, and is just what it purports to be, namely, a Year Book of the Progress in American Entomology during 1868. Dr. Packard has made a good beginning, and we hope he will keep the ball rolling from year to year. No one interested in the study of insects can afford to do without this Record. Price $1.00.

are

THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. - We pleased to learn of the success of this little contemporary. It will be found of great interest and value, to the American as well as to the Canadian entomologist. The number of pages of reading matter has lately been doubled, and each issue is embellished by a cover. As with our own journal, the second volume of the Canadian Entomologist is to end with the year 1870. Subscriptions received by the editor, Rev. C. J. S. Bethune, Credit, Ontario, Canada. Price $1.00.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, Vol. 2, No. 3.-This number has been unexpectedly delayed by difficulties in preparing the plates. It is freighted with interesting and invaluable matter, and we only wish that the Entomologists of this country would support it more liberally. (See advertisement on the inside of cover.)

SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN.-Lansing, Mich, 1868. From Sanford Howard, Secretary.

THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE AND REVIEW.— A monthly Miscellany of Useful Knowledge and General Literature. Philadelphia. $3.00 a year.